Rose Petal Jam

This is a very elegant, somewhat unusual jam. You probably won’t find rose jam jars in most supermarkets (I haven’t seen it in Canada so far) and anyway, the homemade stuff is far superior than anything you can buy. It also sounds so sophisticated when you say you made your own rose petal jam!

Rose petal jam on a slice of toasted, buttered bread, with a few pistachios on top: a sophisticated, beautiful, flavourful breakfast. Photo by L.E.

This recipe calls for only 5 ingredients and no pectin. Of course, if you do want to use pectin, then you can reduce the amount of sugar you use. I also can’t guarantee that it will have the same texture. Maybe I’ll try it sometime and let you know!

I’d never had rose jam before making it; my mother had told me about rose jam, but she never attempted to make it when we were growing up, maybe she thought (probably correctly) that we wouldn’t like its rosy flavour, which is a flavour I only appreciate now as an adult.

Pretty, dried rose petals. They’re beautiful even on their own just like that, but are even better made into jam! Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

I was pleasantly surprised with my rose petal jam experiment, it has turned out beautifully on all levels. It has an almost sad, bittersweet rose flavour; almost like nostalgia for first love or one’s lost youth, or something of the sort. I love the complexity; first it’s sweet, then it leaves a slightly bitter and astringent taste on the back of the tongue, all of this has a hint of sourness from the limes to add a little freshness and balance out the sweetness. It’s a very satisfyingly complex flavour. I now enjoy eating this on a slice of toasted bread with some salted butter and to top it with some pistachios. The salt in the butter provides a lovely contrast and emphasises the best parts of the jam’s flavour.

I used dried rose petals in this jam; another thing I was concerned about. I didn’t know if dried petals would work nicely, but I can now say they were perfect. It’s amazing how they turned such a beautiful bright red once I added the lime juice. The end result was such a beautiful wine-red that I couldn’t help staring at it for many minutes, admiring the beautiful colour. Not only does it taste amazing; it also looks stunningly beautiful. I think this would make a lovely present for someone you love. After all, what better than a jar of sweet red roses they can spread on a slice of bread and enjoy with their tea or coffee? It has so many loving, romantic connotations I won’t go into its hidden meanings right now. You can come up with your own!

Another pretty picture of the rose petal jam on the buttered bread. I can’t get over how it looks and how it tastes. Photo by L.E.

Ingredients

One cup of dried, edible rose petals

The juice of one large lime or lemon (I prefer limes, personally)

One cup granulated white sugar

Two tablespoons rose water (Note: this recipe makes one small jar, if you like it and wish to make more, you can always double or triple the quantities).

One cup water

Method

In a medium sized pot, place the dried rose petals, water and sugar on high heat and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, add the lime juice to the mixture. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Continue to simmer uncovered on low heat for another 15-20 minutes, in the last 5 minutes or so, add the rose water. To check if the jam is ready, put a small saucer in the freezer for half and hour, then take it out, put a small drop of jam mixture on it, if the drop thickens and doesn’t roll when you move the saucer, your jam is ready.

There are two ways to store this: you can either use a proper canning method that requires heating the jars etc. and is useful for storing the jam outside the fridge. Or, you can do as I did and simply store the jam in a clean jar and place it in the fridge, especially if you intend to eat it within a few weeks.

Have you ever made rose petal jam? How did you make it? Do you like it? What are your favourite ways of eating rose petal jam? Let me know in the comments!

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